State of Minnesota secondary Archives: on Government Reform

Heather Johnson:
End need for big money; open up elections to third parties

Q: Do you support or oppose the statement, "Stricter enforcement of voting rights"?

A: People have a right to vote. If elected, I'd push for fair election laws that open up elections to third parties, push to end the need for
large campaign contributions for media attention and advertising, which would greatly reduce the need for large campaign contributions without passing laws that limit free speech.
Term limits, limits upon campaign "time" as well as inclusive political competition for third parties would reduce the gridlock in politics.
No political party or candidate is entitled to win; we must earn the respect of citizens through fair representation for the few common interests of all of "we the people" not partisan bickering or favoritism to the largest donor.

Kurt Bills:
Cut bureaucracy so they won't dream up new regulations

Bills blamed an overgrown bureaucracy for problems. He said many federal workers have nothing else to do but sit around and think of new regulations. He said he does not think Congress needs to take action to reduce regulations because cutting the
bureaucracy would give federal workers less time to dream up new ones.

Klobuchar said regulations should be examined on an industry-by-industry basis, and crafted to allow businesses to grow "while keeping strong safety & health regulations," she said.

Source: West Central Tribune on 2012 MN Senate debate
Oct 20, 2012

Kurt Bills:
Cut more than $23B from regulatory agencies & help farmers

Klobuchar talked about her work on the Senate Agriculture Committee, using it to highlight her experience on agricultural issues.
The first-term senator, elected in 2006, tied each of her farm bill answers to work she'd done on specific provisions. She also underscored the legislation's roughly
$23 billion in cuts over the next decade and noted the bipartisan process that got it through the Senate.

"I really think we need to go even further,"
Bills responded, arguing for drastic cuts in the regulatory agencies that oversee farmers to "push back" against the government intervention in the private sector.

Source: MinnPost.com on 2012 MN Senate debate
Aug 8, 2012

Kurt Bills:
Cut $23B from farm regulatory agencies in Farm Bill

Klobuchar talked about her work on the Senate Agriculture Committee, using it to highlight her experience on agricultural issues.
The first-term senator, elected in 2006, tied each of her farm bill answers to work she'd done on specific provisions. She also underscored the legislation's roughly
$23 billion in cuts over the next decade and noted the bipartisan process that got it through the Senate.

"I really think we need to go even further,"
Bills responded, arguing for drastic cuts in the regulatory agencies that oversee farmers to "push back" against the government intervention in the private sector.

Source: MinnPost.com on 2012 MN Senate debate
Aug 8, 2012

Dan Severson:
Sunset clause for all federal departments

All four of the candidates said they would not vote to raise the national debt ceiling. Severson said if he was elected, his first focus would be a sunset clause for all federal departments.

"We have no systematic review that is going on to ask how
this comes across in the constitution. Is this an actual authority that has been given to the federal government?" Severson said. "As we do that, we begin to reduce the costs of doing business and eliminating those that are unconstitutional."

Source: Bemidji Pioneer on 2012 MN Senate debates
Apr 20, 2012

The above quotations are from State of Minnesota Politicians: secondary Archives.

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